London-based modern jazz contemporary classical and rock group Circuit, featuring nine members from Poland, Italy, Denmark, and the UK are set to quite literally “explode" (a term written in their music) onto the scene in 2011. With their next set of gigs they'll prime their audience for the release of their debut album in September (with a guest appearance of renowned British multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall, playing violin, banjo and guitar on it).
Featuring such instruments as cello, harp and live electronics among the more usual horns and rhythm section, the band sounds like nothing else before them, even if some compare the group to the likes of Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Loose Tubes or classical composer Gyorgy Ligeti—there are moments when these wide-ranging influences are apparent, but it is safe to say that the style of Circuit is eclectic and can only be described as a mixture of many styles with an emphasis on rock and with an experimental approach to form, where tight rhythms and fast tempos contrast with open out-of-time free solos.
Jerzy Bielski, project leader, lends his distinctive compositional skills and guitar playing to the unique sound and unhinged ¬¬spirit of the music. Freewheeling high spirits and anthemic refrains lead to contemplative and ethereal soundscapes peppered with thoughtful—one tune involves elaborate Anglo-Polish wordplay—and occasionally cryptic lyrics.
Jerzy says of the band “When I was writing the material on Circuit's first album my main goal was to create a set of songs bearing little similarity to each other, so the listener doesn't get bored as I often do while listening to even great and respected artists. That's why I also thought of having a multinational band to play this sort of music, which turned out to be completely natural in a place like London where people from different parts of the world live and exist next to each other and it's not a big deal."
Having hand selected players from the jazz course at Middlesex University, the Royal Academy of Music, Leeds College of Music and Academy of Music in Warsaw, members of Circuit are all graduates from different music colleges and universities across the UK and Europe, but their music background is different, as some of them studied jazz, where as the others did classical music or sonic arts courses, along with playing at the same time with other bands—everything from pop, rock, jazz and classical music to free improv and live music for theatre and dance performances—in the UK, Europe and America, some of them even in places such as the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Ronnie Scott's or Hollywood Bowl.
“'The craziest thing I ever heard and if the world is a chaos, here you have the order, if it's a labyrinth, Circuit is the Map to get out/in." —Gabor Podhorszky
“aggressive, multicoloured, sophisticated, personal landscape of chaos." —Tomasz Kraska
“Circuit is an expedition to the pantry of musical sounds, where sporadic jars of melodic jam, sour guitar rasps and frenetic trumpet-piano mixtures can be found next to one another." —Margot Przymierska
Confirmed dates in London
May 7 at The Bowery (Tottenham Court Rd)
May 25 at The Wilmington Arms (Clerkenwell)
June 22 at The Comedy Store (Piccadilly Circus)
Featuring such instruments as cello, harp and live electronics among the more usual horns and rhythm section, the band sounds like nothing else before them, even if some compare the group to the likes of Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Loose Tubes or classical composer Gyorgy Ligeti—there are moments when these wide-ranging influences are apparent, but it is safe to say that the style of Circuit is eclectic and can only be described as a mixture of many styles with an emphasis on rock and with an experimental approach to form, where tight rhythms and fast tempos contrast with open out-of-time free solos.
Jerzy Bielski, project leader, lends his distinctive compositional skills and guitar playing to the unique sound and unhinged ¬¬spirit of the music. Freewheeling high spirits and anthemic refrains lead to contemplative and ethereal soundscapes peppered with thoughtful—one tune involves elaborate Anglo-Polish wordplay—and occasionally cryptic lyrics.
Jerzy says of the band “When I was writing the material on Circuit's first album my main goal was to create a set of songs bearing little similarity to each other, so the listener doesn't get bored as I often do while listening to even great and respected artists. That's why I also thought of having a multinational band to play this sort of music, which turned out to be completely natural in a place like London where people from different parts of the world live and exist next to each other and it's not a big deal."
Having hand selected players from the jazz course at Middlesex University, the Royal Academy of Music, Leeds College of Music and Academy of Music in Warsaw, members of Circuit are all graduates from different music colleges and universities across the UK and Europe, but their music background is different, as some of them studied jazz, where as the others did classical music or sonic arts courses, along with playing at the same time with other bands—everything from pop, rock, jazz and classical music to free improv and live music for theatre and dance performances—in the UK, Europe and America, some of them even in places such as the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Ronnie Scott's or Hollywood Bowl.
“'The craziest thing I ever heard and if the world is a chaos, here you have the order, if it's a labyrinth, Circuit is the Map to get out/in." —Gabor Podhorszky
“aggressive, multicoloured, sophisticated, personal landscape of chaos." —Tomasz Kraska
“Circuit is an expedition to the pantry of musical sounds, where sporadic jars of melodic jam, sour guitar rasps and frenetic trumpet-piano mixtures can be found next to one another." —Margot Przymierska
Confirmed dates in London
May 7 at The Bowery (Tottenham Court Rd)
May 25 at The Wilmington Arms (Clerkenwell)
June 22 at The Comedy Store (Piccadilly Circus)
